96 BOOK REVIEWSFor a black writer the language is very racist; you have to have harrowing fights andhair-raising panga duals [sic] with the language before you can make it do all that you wantit to do. It is so for the feminists. English is very male. Hence feminist writers also adopt thesame tactics. This may mean discarding grammar, throwing syntax out, subverting imagesfrom within, beating the drum and cymbals of rhythm, developing torture chambers ofirony and sarcasm, gas ovens of limitless black resonance. For me this is the impossible, theexciting, the voluptuous blackening image that commits me totally to writing (pp. 7-8).Marechera's choice of symbols and imagery reflects his own tortured existence.Dambudzo Marechera, 1952-87 provides some fascinating insights into thestyle and nature of Zimbabwe's most problematic writer, both from within andwithout. It is, therefore, a welcome addition to the corpus of Zimbabweanliterature. What is, however, regrettable is the number of elementary spelling andgrammatical mistakes in it Š for example 'my hands shoots up' (p. 7); T. S.Elliot' (p. 15); 'The heart is a desert place, and the earth of piercing heat' (p. 29);and 'Day-to-day reality is therefore itself any [i. e. an] illusion created by the mass ofour needs ...' (p. 36). Nevertheless, Flora Veit-Wild, Ernst Schade and BaobabBooks are to be congratulated for the overall quality of the book.It is also encouraging to note the establishment of a publishing house which,in addition to the University, can offer academics an outlet for the publication oftheir scholarly works.University of Zimbabwe M. Z. MALABAPatterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe By Flora [ Veil-] Wild. Gweru, Mambo Press,1988, viii, 152 pp., illus., ISBN 0-86922-432-8, Z$10.00 (p/b).Flora Wild's recently published book, Patterns of Poetry in Zimbabwe, is a usefuladdition to the study of Zimbabwean poetry written in English, blending, as itdoes, some criticism, interviews with some of the younger Black Zimbabweanpoets, and a selection of their poetry, some of which has not been publishedbefore.Mrs Wild's introductory essay is conveniently subdivided, with separatesections on each of the seven poets she interviewed, namely, Chenjerai Hove,Musaemura Zimunya, Charles Mungoshi, Hopewell Seyaseya, Kristina Runga-no, Albert Chimedza and Dambudzo Marechera. Her evaluation of the poets isneatly summarized in the following quotation:Their weaknesses which I attempted to point out in detail earlier on, lie in theirunsatisfactory craftsmanship, in the lack of poetical elaboration due to a certain lack ofartistic competence and experience. They mostly fail to create a piece of writing whichgoes beyond the writer's personal feelings, intentions or sufferings (p. 28).The author does point out Š and, indeed, this is borne out by the interviewsthemselves Š that part of the problem stems from the lack of a poetic traditionwithin which, or from which, the poet can define himself or herself. The historicalreasons for this are well spelt out in the book.The graver problem, however, that of artistic incompetence is, sadly, borneout in a large number of the poems given in the text. Charles Mungoshi, a notedBOOK REVIEWS 97craftsman, points out some of the vigour that must go into, and form an integralpart of, the creative process:I have only got this one collection of poetry published (The milkman doesn't onlydeliver milk). When I was writing these poems I was trying to condense meaning in a fewlines, it was an exercise for my prose writing. I kept on cutting to get utmost concentration.I wanted to find out in how many (or few) words I could put what I wanted to say. Ofcourse there are differences. There are some poems, as you will have noticed, which arenot that well shaped and condensed (p. 79).The emphasis Mungoshi places on reworking one's material needs to be takennote of by many more Zimbabwean writers, who often leave the impression thatthey are content merely to spill their thoughts on to the page. Mungoshi's respectfor the way in which words should be used is highly significant: 'Important for mywriting was Hemingway, his way of writing a short story, of making it very, veryshort, the correct word at the correct place Š and the rest silence...' (p. 81). Thatis why his poems and stories invite rereading, as each reading brings out 'differentlayers of meaning' (p. 81) Š a crucial aspect in 'good' literature, but which islargely missing in Zimbabwean literature, as he himself points out.Some of the other writers echo Mungoshi's sentiments, notably Zimunya andMarechera. Marechera's critique of the anthology And Now the Poets Speak ispertinent:There you find the struggle with the feeling, if one has suffered, that the statement ofone's suffering must necessarily be poetic. Now that is not so. The extent to which one hassuffered through political oppression is not necessarily the substance of a poem (p. 135).The rewards of paying greater attention to how language 'works' are evident insome of the poems found in Patterns of Poetry. Kristina Rungano, whose poemsare often prosaic, does rise to the occasion in 'This Morning', which pulsates withpassion, energy and desire, and brings to mind Senghor's love poems. Her use ofimagery, here, is both rich and illuminating.The finest poems in the book are those of Mungoshi and Zimunya. Thelatter's poetry is at its most vibrant when he is evoking the world of nature andrural life. 'My Home' reveals the poet's delight in the beauty of the EasternHighlands, and his conscious identification with rural people. The rhythm of thepoem conveys, aptly, his warm sentiments. Zimunya's robust sense of humour,which is evident in 'My Home', comes to the fore in 'Kisimiso (A Version ofChristmas)'. The earthy nature of the poet's 'Kisimiso' phase seems to degenerateinto gratuitous vulgarity in the Country Dawns and City Lights phase,* and I tendto agree with Flora Wild's comment that these poems 'appear to be toointentional, too moralistic' (p. 64).Dambudzo Marechera's keen intelligence is evident in his interestinginterview, but the selection of his poetry that the reader is offered is ratherdisappointing. His most successful poems, like the sonnet 'Primal Vision', forexample, seem to be the ones in which he, as it were, mocks himself, fromwithout. Although the critic clearly thinks highly of Marechera's poetry, she does* M. B. Zimunya, Country Dawns and City Lights (Harare, Longman, 198S).98 BOOK REVIEWSconcede that 'at the end, his self-indulgence and exorbitant subjectivism preventhim from creating the kind of pure and immortal art he is aiming at' (p. 22).The question of the writer's relationship with society as a whole is boldlyenunciated by Hopewell Seyaseya, Albert Chimedza and Charles Mungoshi.Seyaseya also provides an apt retort to Ngugi's clamour for vernacular literature:Another point: Ngugi wa Thiongo can say, you must write in your own language. Forhim it is alright. For no matter what he is going to write now, it will be translated intoEnglish. Whereas for people like me, if I want my voice to be heard, it is best to write inEnglish (p. 94).Writers must be free to choose how they write and what they write about. Someof the poets cited write both in English and Shona and use the medium which bestconveys their thoughts and feelings at that particular point in time.Mrs Wild, by and large, manages to convey her sentiments clearly, althoughthe odd expression here and there reveals that English is not her mother tongue.Careful editing could, however, have ironed out clauses like: These statements aremainly based on J. Haasbroek s English commentary of Shona love poetry incollection mentioned in footnote 1 on page 18, in which he ends with thefollowing perspective . . .' (p. 19). More trying are inconsistencies andtypographical errors made when referring to anthologies or individual poems, asin: 'A storm is brewing' (p. 15) and 'A Storm is Brewing' (p. 16); 'Up-in-arms'(p. 29) and 'Up in arms' (p. 35); 'Arrow ofGod and Things fall apart'($. 31), forexample. Names have occasionally been misspelt Š as in 'Ezekiel Mphalele'(p. 26), T. O. Mdoughlin' and 'S. Mutsvairo' (p. 31).Nevertheless, as Professor Lewis Nkosi's Preface makes clear, 'for anyonewishing to achieve a certain measure of intimacy with the men and women whoproduce [the new Zimbabwean poetry], this book will undoubtedly prove to be acompulsive reading' (p. viii).Mrs Wild is to be congratulated for editing these interviews with some ofZimbabwe's younger poets, and for providing a selection of their poems, whichshould serve as a good introduction to those who are unfamiliar with their workand to those who wish to discover what compelled these poets to write. Herpublisher, Mambo Press, deserves credit for producing a well-bound volume withgood quality paper.University of Zimbabwe M. Z. MALABABetter English: A Handbook on Common Errors By M. Lewis and W. Masters.Harare, Longman Zimbabwe, 1987, 114 pp., illus., ZS7.25.The teacher of English in a second language situation is always faced with thetemptation to collect errors. Many teachers have dauntingly large, some mighteven say impressive, collections of errors painstakingly amassed almost as aby-product of the language classroom process. Once the collection begins to runto thousands of examples rather than mere hundreds, the collector makes anassumption common to all collectors: that these errors must have some value.The search for the value of the collection proceeds along predictable lines. As